Islamic Envoys Add to Call for Full Apology From Pope

Published: September 27, 2006

An organization of 56 Islamic nations pressed Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday to apologize for his comments linking Muslims and violence, keeping alive a two-week-old controversy.

Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or O.I.C., approved a statement urging the Vatican to ''retract or redress'' the comments, in which the pope cited quotes saying the Muslim faith was spread by violence.

The group issued its statement a day after Pope Benedict assured diplomats from some 20 Muslim nations and the leaders of Italy's Muslim community that he respected them and was committed to dialogue.

It was the fourth time he had tried to make amends, without actually apologizing directly, for his Sept. 12 speech at a university in his native Germany.

Several of the envoys attending the unprecedented meeting at the pope's summer residence south of Rome said they felt that he had gone a long way to help end the controversy.

But others said they still thought an apology was in order.

The pope had enraged Muslims by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who said, ''Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.''

The statement said the foreign ministers ''believe that it is befitting to the Vatican to retract or redress the said statement, in demonstration of the correct spirit of Christianity in dealing with Islamic issues.''

The ministers expressed ''profound regrets'' over the remarks and said they feared that the pope's language ''might engender a situation of tension between the Muslim world and the Vatican, to the detriment of the real interests of the two parties.''